Nova Scotia athletes ready for Russia

Ellie Black of Halifax competes at the Elite Canada gymnastics meet earlier this year in Edmonton. Black is one of two Nova Scotia Olympians — swimmer David Sharpe is the other — competing at the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia, which begins this weekend. (CONTRIBUTED)

Nova Scotia will be well represented when Canada opens play this weekend at the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia.

The event will bring together upwards of 13,000 athletes, coaches and officials from 170 countries and is second only in size to the Olympics.

More than a dozen Bluenoses will compete in the 27 sports offered, including two Olympians from 2012 in London.

Halifax’s Ellie Black, coming off a Canadian all-around championship earlier this spring, will compete in women’s artistic gymnastics.

Black will represent Dalhousie, where she will start her first year this fall.

The Citadel graduate should be a strong medal contender after making the Olympic finals in vault last summer.

Halifax’s David Sharpe, also representing Dalhousie, is on the swim team roster. He is scheduled to swim the 200-metre butterfly, the same event he qualified to swim in London.

This is the third straight world student competition for Sharpe after he participated in 2011 in China and 2009 in Serbia.

Dalhousie swim coach Lance Cansdale is the swim team leader.

Joining Black on the gymnastics team is Dalhousie’s Evan Cruz, who is having a breakout season. Cruz, a teammate of Black at the Alta Gymnastics Club in Halifax, has competed twice for Canada this year and is a specialist on the pommel horse.

Alta’s David Kikuchi is coaching the women’s gymnastics team.

Two South Shore athletes are on the track and field squad.

Bridgewater’s Rachael McIntosh, who attends the University of Calgary, will compete in the heptathlon. Liverpool native Chelsea Whalen, out of Florida State, will throw the shot put.

Halifax’s Rachelle Coward is on the women’s basketball team. Coward, a guard, played at Charleston Southern, but is destined for the CIS this year.

CBU’s Fabian McKenzie is coaching the women’s team.

Acadia forward Owen Klassen is on the men’s team, which recently had a 9-0 run on a tour of China. He is the only returning player from the 2011 silver-medal winning team.

Former Dalhousie head coach John Campbell is an assistant coach on the team.

Jean Baker of Saint Mary’s, a native of P.E.I., is a prop on the women’s rugby 7’s side. Bridgewater’s Matt Taylor, from Royal Military College, is on the men’s rugby 7’s team at wing.

Two freestyle wrestlers will be in action. Eastern Passage’s Shawn Daye-Finley goes to UNB and Kentville’s Diana Ford attends Brock.

Halifax’s Philip Anderson is on the tennis team for a second time. Anderson is from the University of New Mexico.

The opening ceremonies are Saturday with the closing on July 17. Action in several sports begins this Friday, a day ahead of the official opening.

The event is open to competitors who are at least 17 and less than 28 years of age as of Jan. 1 in the year of the Games.

Participants must be full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event.